Tag: baseball

Bryce Elder named second team All-American

SP Bryce Elder was named to the Collegiate Baseball 2020 All-American second-team. Elder had four starts, going 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA for UT.

Before Texas’ baseball season was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Longhorns were 14-3 and in the midst of a four-game winning streak. Big 12 play was just a week away and Texas was one of the favorites to win the conference.

Starting pitcher Bryce Elder was one of the stars for the Longhorns, being named to the Collegiate Baseball 2020 All-American second-team. Elder had four starts, going 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA.

His best game of the season came in the first game of the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic against No. 11 LSU. Playing at Minute Maid Park, Elder went 6.1 innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits. Adding 10 strikeouts, it was his second double-digit strikeout effort, also having 11 against Boise State.

While no Big 12 player made the first team, three others made the second team along with Elder. Relief pitchers Haylen Green of TCU and Micah Dallas of Texas Tech made it, while second baseman Brian Klien from Texas Tech was the only positional player in the team.

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Greatness comes at a price, but Michael …

Greatness comes at a price, but Michael Jordan greatness? That’s more like the cost of a house down payment — just ask the person who now owns MJ’s cleats. The folks over at Heritage Auctions sold a pair of size 13.5 baseball cleats worn and signed by His Airness when he played for the Chicago White Sox’s minor-league affiliate, the Birmingham Barons. The total cost … a whopping $93,000!!!

Nico Mascia nominated for McWhorter Scholarship

Nico Mascia nominated for McWhorter Scholarship.

KNOXVILLE — Former University of Tennessee baseball player Nico Mascia has been nominated for a prestigious academic award.

Mascia, a catcher and infielder for the Diamond Vols, was an all-state player during his high school days at Farragut High School, was nominated for the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship.

The scholarship has been awarded by the Southeastern Conference since 1986.

Mascia, who was an All-State standout as a junior in high school for the Admirals, has excelled in the class room at Tennessee.

He was the 2018 SEC Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2018 as a redshirt sophomore.

The Diamond Vol was on the Dean’s List every year between 2015-19 and he was on the SEC Spring Honor Roll every year during that time.

He was a Google Cloud Academic All-America Second Team in 2018.

Masica, a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Major, went to work full-time at UT Medical Center in 2019 as an assistant in the orthopedic trauma unit.

‘The Last Dance’ exclusive clip: Michael Jordan walks away from NBA for pro baseball career

In this exclusive clip from an upcoming episode of ‘The Last Dance,’ we see Michael Jordan leave the NBA for pro baseball.

The Last Dance, an ESPN/Netflix ten-part documentary on the 1997-98 Bulls and the career of Michael Jordan, has become a must-see sensation for everyone in the sporting world.

With most pro sports on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, we need something sports to watch, and this documentary is filling that gap for many of us. (It is averaging 5.8 million viewers, per ESPN, which is an awful lot for a documentary!)

We now have an exclusive clip from the upcoming episode of The Last Dance, which shows Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Jordan’s trainer Tim Grover discussing Jordan’s decision to walk away from his NBA career and try to make it in pro baseball.

The clip comes courtesy of ESPN/Netflix.

Episodes seven and eight of The Last Dance will air this Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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Two sons try and go yard off Texas Legend Roger Clemens

COVID-19 has postponed baseball, leaving players to work out on their own. The Clemens family has been working out together to stay in shape.

The coronavirus has taken its toll on athletes across the country, whether their sport was in season or out of season. Baseball was just getting started, with all teams in spring training before the season getting delayed.

For former Longhorn Kacy Clemens, he was entering his fourth season in MLB’s minor league system with the Toronto Blue Jays. Spanning from low A ball to AA, the lefty is hitting a career .226 with 26 home runs and 115 RBIs.

A more recent UT grad in Kody Clemens would have been in the middle of his third professional baseball season with the Houston Astros organization. Kody has hit a career .248 with 17 home runs and 83 RBIs.

Despite the shut down of baseball, Kacy and Kody have been staying in shape with the help of their 7x Cy Young-winning father, Roger Clemens.

The family even participated in the Texas virtual tailgate, with Kody and Kacy trying to hit home runs off their father.

Soon enough, both Clemens brothers will be back on the field playing for their respective minor league baseball teams. With the Blue Jays and Astros have great minor league systems, both were on the edge of making the AA squad in 2020.

Until then, Roger will be pitching to them in a virtual ballpark, hopefully not giving up too many more home runs in Fenway Park.

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KBO team uses a boy in a bubble for a socially distanced first pitch

Different, but certainly creative under the circumstances.

The Korean Baseball Organization officially kicked off its 2020 season Tuesday, and, despite being broadcast in the middle of the night for anyone stateside, the games are already offering starved-for-sports fans what they want with home runs, wild bat flips and, you know, live competition.

The ceremonial first pitch at one of the games was awfully memorable too — and not just because there were no fans in the stands celebrating the start of the season, which was scheduled to begin March 28 but was delayed several weeks because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Before KT Wiz’s game against the Lotte Giants on Tuesday, a young boy delivered a socially distanced first pitch from inside a large, clear balloon. The balloon itself also seemed to serve as the first-pitch ball because it was decorated like a baseball, and the boy, obviously, didn’t literally throw or hand the catcher anything. (They high-fived.)

Different, but certainly creative under the circumstances. Here’s how Reuters described the scene:

Lee Raon, a nine-year-old baseball fan, stood on the mound. But instead of throwing the ball, the boy, inside a giant clear balloon, walked towards the catcher in what was called a “socially distant first pitch” for South Korean club KT Wiz on Tuesday.

And you can see for yourself what exactly that looked like…

This ceremonial first pitch doesn’t quite compare to the acrobatics, choreography or literal ball-of-fire first pitches the KBO has seen before. But — especially given the times with the world shut down and trying to stay safe while simultaneously bringing sports back — this one is still pretty unforgettable.

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